Restaurant Guide 2013: Ken's Artisan Pizza

[WOOD COASTER] Reclaimed
wood is everywhere in this damn town. Every cocktail bar, farm-to-table
restaurant and corn syrup-happy ice cream parlor seems to lay claim to
some piece of recycled timber. Wake me up when Duane “Stumptown”
Sorenson salvages panels from Abigail Scott Duniway’s privy. But for my
money, the planks with the finest old-growth pedigree are those at Ken’s
Artisan Pizza, where the bar and tables used to make up the Big Dipper
roller coaster at Jantzen Beach. Before Hayden Island was Washington’s
duty-free cigarette shop, it was Portland’s million-dollar playground,
and kids flocked to the Big Dipper’s 83-foot drop. It’s funny, then,
that wood with such thrill-seeking roots now exists alongside such
dependable—in the best way—cuisine. Ken’s 12-inch pies are studies in
restraint: a vegetarian pie with a peppery pesto base contrasting sweet
zucchini on top; or the soppressata, with tomato sauce, mozzarella,
basil and spicy, garlicky salami. But while they might not shock, Ken’s
reliably delicious wood-fired fare (don’t miss the roasted vegetable
plate, which changes seasonally) keeps the patrons coming back, just as
the daredevils kept returning to the Big Dipper decades before.